Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, at the 2023 Power Up Concert & Conference.

Celebrating this year’s Women’s Equality Day and 10 years of Take The Lead’s successes are reasons enough to attend the 4th annual Power Up Concert & Conference. But what you take away in knowledge, strategies, mentorship, networking, friendships, collaborators, inspiration and specific tools for your leadership path are priceless.

The “Together We Lead” event is spearheaded by Take The Lead Co-founder and President Gloria Feldt. The event includes the evening concert August 25 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts* in Washington, D.C., and the full-day conference August 26 at the National Housing Center. Icon Lynda Carter will receive the Leading Woman Award, along with other key awards, panels and workshops.
“The path to equality in leadership is paved by making space for each one of our own stories,” says Feldt, who has spent the last six decades advocating for women’s rights. “Together, we lead,” says Feldt. “Together, we will honor Lynda Carter and celebrate all of the advocates who continue the long march toward equitable representation in all sectors.”

““The path to equality in leadership is paved by making space for each one of our own stories,” says @GloriaFeldt, who has spent the last six decades advocating for #womensrights.”

Here are seven top takeaways (and there are many more) that you can rely on from this year’s “Together We Lead,” themed conference.

1. Making Connections. None of us can do the work alone. At this conference, you will have the chance to meet hundreds of other entrepreneurs, leaders, business owners, consultants and managers who will dispel information and create mentorships and collaborations. This is critical because key mentorship does not happen for most women in the workplace.

According to the Association for Talent Development, “Data from DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2023, which garnered responses from 1,826 HR professionals and 13,695 leaders across the world found that “an inclusive culture is one where companies trust employees, give workers a voice, thank them for their contributions, and acknowledge their efforts and commitment.” However, research shows women have mentors at work less often than men, so “women miss out on the opportunity to receive leadership skills training or preside over a profit and loss function, which is an important milestone for advancing to the C-suite.”

“At the @Takeleadwomen #PowerUp conference, you will have the chance to meet hundreds of other #entrepreneurs, leaders and business owners to create #mentorships and collaborations.”

Register here for the Power Up Concert & Conference

2. Learning New Skills. Listening to grandiose claims is not what the Power Up Conference is about. Specific tools, including the Intentioning Power Tools, will be featured, as well as invaluable advice from civic leaders and financial experts. Take The Lead board member Loretta McCarthy, co-CEO and managing partner of Golden Seeds, LLC, leads a panel on owning the power to achieve financial success and ways to get there.

Financial security for women is not a guarantee, nor what most women feel. Northwestern Mutual’s Planning and Progress Study in 2023 found “four in 10 U.S. women feel financially secure and 44% think they will be financially prepared for retirement. Sixty-one percent of men feel they will be financially prepared for retirement.” The study also “found Gen Z and millennial women are more optimistic about the future than older generations and most likely to say their financial planning needs improvement,” Spectrum News Reports.

“At the @Takeleadwomen #PowerUp Conference, TTL board member @LorettaMcCarthy leads a panel on owning the power to achieve #financialsuccess and ways to get there.”

3. Trying New Ideas. How can you be a reliable thought leader, pushing ahead with new ideas in different arenas and making global impact? Tiffany Shlain, globally revered artist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, national bestselling author, and the founder of the Webby Awards, works across mediums and platforms, from sculptures and films, to performance.

As a speaker and panelist on thought leadership at the PowerUp Conference, Shlain will explain how her work explores the intersection of feminism, philosophy, technology, neuroscience, and nature. Honored by Newsweek as one of the "Women Shaping the 21st Century," Shlain premiered her one-woman spoken cinema show, Dear Human, and her recent art exhibition, Human Nature, at the National Women’s History Museum. The centerpiece sculpture , DENDROFEMONOLOGY, A Feminist History Tree Ring, was installed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Her remarkable breadth of influence is inspiring.

According to Texas Women’s University, “Women make up 50.8% of the population; earn 59% of master’s degrees, 48.5% of law degrees, 47.5% of medical degrees, 38% of MBAs and account for 47% of the U.S. labor force. Yet very few women hold the highest positions of leadership in the academic, legal, corporate or political spheres.” The report continues, “At its core, leadership is about developing ideas, getting those ideas into the world, and implementing them. Increased exposure and credibility as an expert lead to increased influence, so learning to intervene in public discourses opens up both personal and professional opportunities.”

4. Setting Goals To Build Your Brand. How do you know if what you think you are accomplishing and presenting to the world is what you intend? Making sure the reception and perception of your brand as an industry professional and leader is aligned with what you believe it is, is key to true success. Felicia Davis, CEO and founder of The Black Women’s Collective,” and winner of the 2020 Martin Luther King “Living The Dream” award, will lead sessions about how using your power can make history with building your own brand and spur you to avenues you may not have imagined.

“Making sure the reception and perception of your #brand as a professional and #leader is aligned with what you believe it is is key to true success.”

‘“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room,’ said Julie Lowery, AWS Senior Solutions Architecture Manager. If you’re not sure what your brand is, she recommends doing a frank self-assessment and asking peers and colleagues what they see as your brand,” according to Amazon. “‘Ask yourself, 'what is your brand today, what do you want it to be, and how can you be intentional about taking steps to get there.’ A simple way to think about your brand is this: What do you want to be known for?’”

5. Sharing Stories. We can learn from each other’s truths. With an opportunity for both formal and informal sharing of histories, the Power Up Conference is a setting that lends itself to providing insights and wisdom from personal experiences and anecdotes.

According to Forbes, “Shannon Nash, CFO at Wing Corporation, an Alphabet company, learned to embrace storytelling as a way to call out social inequities. When she decided to stop practicing law to take care of her autistic son, the actress and producer Debbie Allen hired her to lead and scale up her dance academy. The job offered Nash the flexibility she needed to care for her son and a doorway into the world of storytelling. Nash recalled: “I saw how [Allen] told stories and how that turned into all these opportunities, all the success. I started embracing how you can use storytelling to advance things both that you truly care about, but also advance your business.”

“The #PowerUp Conference is a setting that lends itself to providing insights and wisdom from personal experiences and anecdotes. #community #networking”

6. Celebrating Success and Finding Joy. The Power Up Conference at the Kennedy Center on the evening of August 25 will feature world-renowned pianist and composer Marina Arsenijevic, Sweet Honey in the Rock and the iconic feminist trio, BETTY. Composer and pianist Marina Arsenijevic has been featured in all Power Up Concerts and donates her time and enormous talents as a pioneer in inclusion, equity and diversity in music and entertainment.

Gloria Feldt writes of interviewing Arsenijevic for her book, Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take the Lead for (Everyone’s) Good. “She talked about how, soon after she arrived in the United States, she told a group of families who like herself had immigrated from Serbia, one of seven countries that war torn Yugoslavia had split into that her dream was to play in Carnegie Hall. Within a relatively short time, she had the opportunity to perform in that iconic hall. That intention was and is not just to be a great pianist but one who uses her music to foster communication and appreciation for diversity among all people,” Feldt writes. “The important message of women’s equality is something I have to celebrate,” Arsenijevic told Take The Lead.

Sweet Honey in The Rock celebrates 50 years in the music industry with 24 recorded albums and a legacy of inclusion and excellence. “For me to do the best I can is to bring some measure of all rightness to any situation, to any person, or to any area wherever I am,” says Carol Maillard, one of the original founding members of the group, who has performed with the ensemble in Ethiopia, Peru, Jamaica, Swaziland, Belize, Tasmania, and Australia. “I will say I tried to do my best, to give my best and be my best.“

Legendary Indie Rock trio BETTY, includes Alyson Palmer (vocals, bass, guitar), Elizabeth Ziff (vocals, guitar, electronic programming) and her sister, Amy Ziff (vocals and cello). They “use beguiling melodies, compelling lyrics and signature harmonies to create energetic live shows that mix music, performance art, politics and comedy,” according to BETTY. “More than a band, BETTY uses music to channel their passion for representation, fairness and equality. From the beginning, they’ve blended their voices for causes they fight for, their talents in collaboration with other artists of every medium, and their time in support of women and girls, worldwide.”

“The #PowerUp Conference on August 25 will feature world-renowned pianist and composer Marina Arsenijevic, @SHoney73 and the iconic feminist trio, BETTY.”

7. Taking Action for Change. Conferences can be convivial and community-building on one level, but they can be personally life-changing and key to changing systems and taking action. At this year’s Power Up Conference, Zakiya Thomas, ERA Coalition President and CEO, will share her wisdom, strategies and priorities for moving towards full adaptation and incorporation of equal rights for women in all sectors, including politics. Thomas is a non-profit leader of more than 250 organizations representing 80 million people. Working with a mission of gender, racial, economic and reproductive justice, Thomas’s work is aimed at connection and collaboration. The 28th Amendment, Thomas says, “is a promise of equality.” She adds, “It gives Congress the opportunity to fix our systems that have been broken too long.”

“At this year’s #PowerUp Conference, @ZakiyaEra, @ERACoalition President and CEO, will share her wisdom and strategies for moving towards full adaption and incorporation of #equalrights for women.”

In a recent State Department briefing, Diana O’Brien, Bela Kornitzer Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis, says, “So if there is one thing you probably already know about gender and U.S. politics, it’s that men are significantly overrepresented in U.S. politics. So men still make up three-quarters of governors, three-quarters of senators, three-quarters of mayors, over 70 percent of members of Congress, 67 percent of state legislators, 67 percent of municipal officeholders.“

She continues, “So it is still the case that there is voter bias against women candidates in the U.S., so there are still a small but nontrivial number of Americans who report that men make better political candidates than women, right, and a set of Americans who report holding sexist attitudes on surveys.”

The response would be more people identifying as women running for office, supporting candidates, voting and making efforts for change that would achieve gender parity, the mission of Take The Lead since it’s founding.

*This performance is an external rental presented in coordination with the Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Kennedy Center.

Leadership Takeaway of The Week:

“The 28th Amendment is a promise of equality. It gives Congress the opportunity to fix our systems that have been broken too long.”

Zakiya Thomas, President and CEO, The ERA Coalition

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com